Moving away from the chill mornings, this week has been a little damp. Luckily a lot of the rain fell overnight and I was able to cycle around the damp patches.
One good Armstrong’s Lane 40k loop was ridden early which always gives a good boost to the weekly total. The remainder of the 100k for the week was made up of local rides plus the Greenspeed on the cycle path – all of which I have discussed before.
The Lane Loop was ridden on a day which threatened rain but none fell until I returned home. There were rainbows though and the end looked close enough to think about returning with a spade and digging for the pot of gold.
An aside. We moved to Tassie in the mid 80s and in the middle of a wet few years. Rainbows were a very common sight but recent dry weather has made them scarce.
A 1985 rainbow in the Huon Valley.
Getting ready for the mainland trip is starting to gee us up. At last we have got the caravan back from the Auto-electrican’s and it now has bright LED lights on the back and sides, oh and front too.
We will feel a lot safer on the Melbourne streets and Sydney by-pass roads now. I have moved the Brooks saddle from Vivente to Brompton as the Brompton will be coming with us. It’s not in quite settled into the right spot yet but there is plenty of adjustment to play with and time to get things sorted. The saddle is sprung and with the suspension on the Brompton the effect is certainly noticeable. Good or bad? Don’t know yet. The bike is also booked into the main Melbourne Brompton dealership for a service and the fitting of a Mountain Drive to assist the old bloke with hill climbing. I am looking forward to testing out the re-fettled bike around Melbourne’s Capital City Trail – a route which should produce some images for this blog and some half decent coffee.
Today I took the trike around Devon Hills. A quiet, leafy 25-acre-at-a-time lifestyle property area. The lure to go there was the lack of cars on the road, some serious undulations for uphill leg work and photo opportunities for the “bike and tree” challenge on Cycle365. The air today is coming straight up from Antarctica and it strengthened during the ride making it a pretty bracing experience. Sunny then grey clouds, spits of rain back to sunshine, wind forcing pedalling downhill. Unfortunately most of the picturesque trees were on the same side of the road as the power lines. Bill (the Challenge setter) is right. It’s not easy to photograph trees.
Tree Image #1.
The left hand eucalyptus tree is quite spectacular when viewed in real time. As a picture it is, sadly, less impressive. I don’t know the gum tree species that live in the north but I can tell you it is NOT a Blue Gum – the bark is wrong. The picture was taken at the only angle possible as the sun lay to the right and shone straight into the lens. I can see lens flare even at this angle.
Tree Image #2
The wind was blowing the branches about and, as this is a 3-into-one HDR image, the software which sewed things together couldn’t quite handle the yellow flowers or green leaves – so they look out of focus and a bit swirly. Anyway, this is an early opener Wattle and it smelt like Spring!!
Next week I will see if I can get the front mudguard / fender mounted on the trike. I had to take it off because the first fitting wasn’t quite right and the bit at the front vibrated badly. The disk brake fittings take up the convenient holes on the forks so I need to fashion some stainless wire to match a suitable but less handy bolt hole. Going through wet areas today proved just how much water the front wheel lifts and sprays. Up it goes leaving the spray in just the right spot for my face to collect it. The rear wheels are fitted with mudguards and they stop my ears getting wet – so, I must fix the front.
Total for week : 109 k Total for year : 2,549 k
Vivente : 41 k Brompton : 13 k Anura : 55 k
Tony's Tasmanian Cycling Blog 